torakris

As long as the restaurant allows it, the decision should be up to the parents. My 3 children under the age of six would never fall into this category of well behaved for more than 1 hour. Usually 30 minutes max for my 22 month old. This one thing I love about Japan, since babysitting is unheard of in this country, the children go everywhere with the parents. I have never been to "really" nice restaurants with them, but have never even gotten a second glance when walking into a decent restaurant. Of course I would prefer to dine with out them...... On visits to the States however I have had nastly glances from child free couples at even "family style restaurants" like Tony Romas and Applebees. I think it really depends a lot on the culture of the country you are dining in. I would never take my decently behaved 6 year old to a nice restaurant in the US. It reminds me of the time I took my 11 month old on a trip from Japan to Hawaii in First Class. Even though she was very well behaved I had nasty looks the whole time (all from the non-Asians) for even bringing her there. I could just tell some were waiting for her to do something, so they could say something to me for ruining their flight.

My friend and I had a 2 day BBQ this weekend, Saturday at her house, Sunday at mine, different group of people on each day. Food on the menu: Bruschetta with tomato basil topping tapenade (homemade) roasted pepper and anchovy topping yakitori with just salt for the kids chicken wings with homemade BBQ sauce hoison based sauce grilled pork tenderloin with a mustard, apple and rosemary marinade grilled beef tenderloin with red wine and herbs grilled mussels with butter, white wine, lemon, garlic and parsley couscous salad with grilled veggies and lots of herbs French style potato salad with green beans, cherry tomatoes, kalamatas and parsley mozarella and tomato tart crab quiche grilled eggplants and baby leeks with soy ginger sauce potato packages for the kids various wines, beer and a huge batch of sangria for dessert: pumpkin chiffon pie custard and cream pie apple streudel iced coffee Probably forgot something, but you get the idea. Great weekend!!

My 6 year old daughter begs us to go to sushi restaurants. She usually just gets a plate of ikura and ootoro, though I can usually convince her that chutoro is just fine. My 4 year old and 1 year old also have no problem finding something to eat. Ikura is the favorite of all 3. All sushi shops here have a children's plate and they always consist of cucumber maki, egg nigiri, shrimp nigiri, tuna, ikura and sometimes something else like unagi or inarizushi. They also come with a drink and a toy as well. As for using chopsticks, my 6 and 4 year old use them daily at school and usually at home (depending on what we are eating), they both picked it up around three. No special devices were used, just regular children's sized chopsticks. I have seen kids as young as 1 1/2 using chopsticks here! I have to admit my 22 month old son really tries, he ends up mostly spearing the food though.

I guess it depends on the size of your mouth!! Just kidding! There is what I believe to be an average size which can be put into your mouth all at once depending on the topping. The thin white fishes, squid, scallops and amaebi can all fit in pretty easy. Others like the tuna varieties, salmon, regular shrimp, ikura and uni can be eaten in one bite but I usually have to keep my hand in front of my mouth for the first couple bites so nothing pops out. Definite two biters for me are the egg, unagi and kazunoko. Nowadays most of my sushi tends to come from either supermarkets or home delivery shops. There is more sushi delivery than pizza here. There is a trend at restaurants though to make the sushi topping very long. Tuna seems to be the most popular for this and can be more than twice the length of the rice, this of course is impossible to eat in one bite. I have never noticed that the size of the sushi seemed bigger in the US, I think it depends more on the specialty rolls at the restaurant.

I have become addicted to this thread!! I have read the reviews over about 5 times each and now need one of those suction thingies dentists use to get all drool out of my keyboard. Why can't I get food like this in Japan? Here, one of the meals described would cost close to $500 (for only 2 people). That is just a little too much for the average Jo. I really think the most innovative Japanese chefs leave this country and go elsewhere. Guess I have to keep looking! Please keep us posted on your future trips to this incredible restaurant!

I crack my eggs with one hand on the corner of the sink, open them with 2 hands and separate using the shells.

Is that the brand name. Were can they be had? at www.bigass.com of course. lots of stuff to browse through there. Sending us to that link was evil, Tommy. A good spanking is in order. Let me get in line for that spanking too!! I can't believe I was gullible enought to fall for it!! I was trying to get rid of it before my kids walked in the room , but screens kept popping up that I couldn't close.

The only food I can remember detesting as I was growing up was scalloped potatoes. I have never liked potatoes unless they are very highly seasoned because they are so bland. On the nights my mom would make her scallopd ham and potatoes I would usually eat just the salad. Thinking back now I think I was a very hard child for my mom food wise, I hated most of the foods kids loved. I didn't then and still don't like peanut butter (especially in cookies!), bologna, jello, and Kraft Mac and Cheese. For luches I would insist on turkey breast with provolone, "good" lettuce (not iceberg) and Hellman's mayo on pumpernickel, and I was only in 1st grade! My poor mom, I was one of eight kids!!

Normally I only use flat leaf, but then I made Cook's Illustrated's taboulleh. They recommend curly leaf for it and I really enjoy it, but I think it is the only thing I use the curly type for.

I love those corners too.... yummmm Definitely agree! Corners rule! Luckily my kids go straight for the middle. Can I adopt your kids and send you my adult friends? At least when I bake brownies? If you borrow them for a while you may be stuck with them for life! I may get used to the quiet and not want them back!

This exactly dinner but, I just had to take a break from egullet to goa nd make my 4 year old daughter's "bento" lunch for preschool. Monday to Thursday they receive a school lunch but on Fridays the mothers ahve to make a bento (Japanese style box lunch). Today's lunch: egg omelette with hijiki frozen homestyle french fries (thick cut with skin) wrappen in bacon and fried green pea salad carrot slices cooked in dashi and sugar cut into flower shapes 2 small onigiri (rice balls) with wakame and sesame seeds slices of golden kiwi and one (canned in syrup) sakuranbo cherry Those of you with small children be very thankful you don't live in Japan. no sandwiches in brown bags here!

Remember I live in Japan! Ther are no tortillas here. If I want to eat them I gotta make them! There is an "International" market near my house that sells frozen 6 inch ones for $5.00 a ten pack. It is so easy to make and taste so much better! My recipe uses milk and has great chew.

I love those corners too.... yummmm Definitely agree! Corners rule! Luckily my kids go straight for the middle.

Last night I decided to take it easy and make one of the kid's favorites, steak and onion fajitas. homemade flour tortillas homemade tomato and cilantro salsa homemade guacamole black olives from a can fresh jalapenos from the garden

In an earlier posting I mentioned my Kyocera ceramic knife that I wasn't really happy with, now I am even more not happy. I dropped it on the floor today as I was putting it away (missed my feet!) and it chipped a good 1/2 inch off the tip! No more ceramic knives for me.

I guess Ben hasn't seen those segments on the Antiques Roadshow where the expert meets the hopeful owner of some old sword he has been using as a doorstop for twenty years: Expert: "Well, this is a fine specimen of an 1861 Southern cavalry sabre, used by the 3rd regiment, second division of Col. Bartholemew Jeremia Coburn's Army of the Housatonic. Very, very rare, there are just two known to have survived with the beveled hilt and engraved blood channel. Do you have any idea what it is worth?" Hopeful and slightly dazed owner: "Well no, not really. But a neighbor told me it looked old and might be worth a pretty penny." Expert: "Well, in it's original condition a sword like this fetched $475,000 at auction last year. But unfortunately you've had this sword sharpened and cleaned, and that reduces its value to a collector to about $11.99." Owner faints. Hehehe, sweet. The sword I found in my grandfather's office after he passed away some years back. It is an old samuri style sword that looks like it was from WWII. Part of the handle is broken (I guess the bolster, unless it has another name) and the blade is quite dirty. It doesnt have any kind of ornaments on it, it seems pretty utilitarian. Any guesses? Ben Check out the following site http://www.samuraisword.com/ They have a section called evaluation, that helps you find out what type of sword you have and whether or not it is worth anything. My husband has a couple os Japanese swords that I have also been thinking about getting appraised.

For about a year now I have been making the recipe from The Best Recipe and really enjoy them, THEN I got Regan Daley's In the Sweet Kitchen and made her Really, REALLY, Fudgy Brownies, these are not for the faint hearted. The absolute best thing about the recipe? She makes them in a 9X13 inch pan, so there are even more to eat!!

I never used to eat chocolate, but after having kids I crave it close to every day. I usually reach for M&M's, but if I go for a candy bar it will be a Kit Kat. My favorite bar of all times though was the Summit bar, it was out for a short time in the '80's, sometimes I still dream about it!

I made a shredded chicken (steamed an extra thigh the night before) and mizuna salad tossed with a sudachi-soy-sesame-togarashi dressing. Shioyaki (salt grilled) sanma (I think this is called saury pike in English, I had never heard of it until I came to Japan though) kimchee chijimi with a sudachi-soy dipping sauce namul of mung bean sprouts namul of zenmai (fiddlehead fern?)

Sorry for misleading people with my version of German potato salad, I actually just stumbled across this recipe a year ago in The Best Recipe. They call it a German style potato salad with bacon and basalmic vinegar. Growing up in the US I always assumed the difference between German potato salad and American potato salad was that German was served warm. The German potato salad I grew up with never had bacon and was made with only onions, vinegar and stock, just as Peter described. I grew up with a lot of good German food taught to my mother by my paternal grandmother (who came to the US in the '30's from Germany) because my mother the daughter of Italian immigrants couldn't possible know how to cook "proper" German food! Needless to say the combination of the two cuisines always made the kitchen smell wonderful!

Wow, thanks for that site! Never new it existed, guess I should be spending more time online!!! Hahahahaha Just scanned it quickly, but it seems full of great info, I will check it out more once after I get off egullet. Once more the laundry will not get done!

torakris- Would you share the recipe for your peanut sauce? The ones I have made all seem too sweet and lacking in complexity. Your version sounds great. Thanks! ooohhh! love too! I have worked hard perfecting this and find it to be a great all purpose peaunut sauce, though I am working on a chunkier sauce for satay. 1 can coconut milk 1/2 cup smooth peanut butter 1/4 cup brown sugar 1/4 cup soy sauce (preferably Kikkoman made in Japan) 1 tablespoon rice vinegar 2 to 4 fresh kaffir lime leaves 1 stalk lemongrass, minced 1/4 cup basil 1/2 cup chopped shallots or onion 2 tablespoons minced garlic 1-4 tablespoons of red curry paste (this amount will depend on the brand and the amount of heat you want, I use the Mae Ploy brand and use about 1 1/2 tablespoons for a good but not overpowering heat. Add a little to start and taste as it cooks) 1 cup cilantro, optional (I love cilantro, so actually prefer to put it on the finished product as well. I have found though that a lot of people detest this herb) Combine all the ingredients in a nonreactive saucepan and bring to a simmer, cook gently over low heat being caerful not to let it boil. When it starts to thicken (about 5 to 10 minutes) adjust to taste and then remove from heat. Press through a seive and let cool befoere using. It can be refrigerated for up to 2 weeks. Enjoy!

I guess great cooks think alike! Today in my cooking class, I taught them how to make fresh spring rolls with various types of sashimi, veggies and lots of herbs. We also made a simple nampla sauce with lime, chile, ginger and a litttle sugar and a wonderful peanut sauce with fresh kaffir lime leaf and lemongrass. Dessert was tapioca with coconut milk. For dinner I wanter to use the leftover sauces so I made a gado gado type platter for the peanut sauce. I steamed chicken thighs with their marinade of sake, soy, ginger, and Jaapnese leeks, then sliced and served with mint, cilantro, slivered Japanese leeks and bibb lettuce. Roll everyhting together in the lettuce an ddip into the nampla sauce. Also had jasmine rice and some homemade kimchi my Korean friend brought over.

If you speak Japanese, you have much better chances of finding something. Cooking classes in Japan are hard to get into on such notice and are rarely offered for such a short period of time. A friend of mine is starting some classes this Octtober but she registered for them way back in June. The "good" ones usually have a pretty hefty entrance fee. For her baking class 4 times a month (total of 2 months) she had to pay $300 for an entrance fee, plus $150 a month. She also had to buy all of her own equipment, 2 sets of stainless steel bowls in 3 sizes, plus other misc items. I will look a little more, but i keep coming up with places in the US and Europe for the Japanese people to go to!

To keep veggies fresh for a pretty long time I use these wonderful "Keep fresh" bags they have here in Japan. They are green bags that come in a variety of sizes and keep leafy greens for about a week and things like cabbages, carrots, turnips, etc last for about 2 to 3 weeks. I saw an article about them in an American parenting magazine a couple years ago so they (and maybe still are) available in the US. I have no idea what they would be called in English. They really work wonders,especially when I can't get to the store that often. And of course the best way to keep celery in to wrap it in foil, keeps for weeks!